Read Around Europe Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Europe.
Best books from Europe (2861)
1081.
The Mist by Ragnor Jonasson EN
IcelandDescription:
A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Is this the best crime writer in the world today?' The Times 'Triumphant. Chilling, creepy, perceptive, almost unbearably tense' Ian Rankin 'A world-class crime writer' Sunday Times _______ 1987. An isolated farm house in the east of Iceland. The snowstorm should have shut everybody out. But it didn't. The couple should never have let him in. But they did. An unexpected guest, a liar, a killer. Not all will survive the night. And Detective Hulda will be haunted forever . . . FROM THE TWO MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR _______ 'This is Icelandic... continue
1082.
The Atom Station by Halldór Laxness EN
Description:
From the Nobel Prize–winning author of Independent People: A biting satire of post-WWII Iceland caught between superpowers at the dawn of the Nuclear Age. When the Americans make an offer to buy Icelandic land to build an atomic war base, a storm of protest is provoked throughout the country, and it is here that Laxness finds the catalyst for his story. Told by a country girl from the north, the novel follows her experiences upon taking up employment as a maid in the house of her Member of Parliament. She finds herself in a world very different to that of her upbringing and, marvelling at the ... continue
1083.
Independent People by Halldor Laxness EN
Description:
The great Icelandic novel by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Halldór Laxness 'There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life' New York Review of Books First published in 1946, this is a humane, epic novel set in rural Iceland. Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor his family, will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As sh... continue
1084.
Description:
Celebrated Icelandic writer Gerður Kristný's Drápa is a novel-poem which takes its form from Old Norse shield poetry and its mood from modern Nordic crime. But the poem is no fiction: it is about a real woman's murder in the city of Reykjavík, and, through this lens, about all women's deaths. This is Viking poetry at its most contemporary.
1085.
Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason EN
Description:
An old man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat. A cryptic note and a photograph of a young girl's grave are left behind. DID THE DEAD MAN'S PAST COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM? Inspector Erlendur discovers that several decades ago the victim was accused, but not convicted, of an unsolved crime. As he follows a fascinating trail of strange forensic evidence, Inspector Erlendur uncovers secrets that are much larger than the murder of one man - dark secrets that have been carefully guarded for many, many years... 'A fascinating window on an unfamiliar world as well as an original and puzzling mystery... continue
1086.
Description:
Gunnar Kampen grows up in Iceland during the Second World War in a household fiercely opposed to Hitler and Nazism. At nineteen he seems set for a conventional, dutiful life. And yet in the spring of 1958, he founds a covert, anti-Semitic nationalist party, a cause that will take him on a clandestine mission to England from which he never returns.
Inspired by one of the ringleaders of a little-known neo-Nazi group that was formed in Iceland in the 1950s, Sjon's portrait of an ardent fascist is as thought-provoking as it is disturbing. As this taut and fascinating novel suggests, the se... continue
1087.
The Passion Hymns of Iceland, Being Translations from the Passion-Hymns of Hallgrim Petursson by Hallgrim Peturssonm translated by Charles Pilcher EN
Description:
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute th... continue
1088.
Animal Life by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir EN
Description:
From winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Icelandic Literature Prize, Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, comes a dazzling novel about a family of midwives set in the run-up to Christmas in Iceland In the days leading up to Christmas, Dómhildur delivers her 1,922nd baby. Beginnings and endings are her family trade; she comes from a long line of midwives on her mother's side and a long line of undertakers on her father's. She even lives in the apartment that she inherited from her grandaunt, a midwife with a unique reputation for her unconventional methods. As a terrible storm races towards... continue
1089.
The Prose Edda : Tales from Norse Mythology by Snorri Sturluson EN
Description:
Written in Iceland a century after the close of the Viking Age, The Prose Edda is the source of most of what we know of Norse mythology. Its tales are peopled by giants, dwarves, and elves, superhuman heroes and indomitable warrior queens. Its gods live with the tragic knowledge of their own impending destruction in the cataclysmic battle of Ragnarok. Its time scale spans the eons from the world’s creation to its violent end. This robust new translation captures the magisterial sweep and startling psychological complexity of the Old Icelandic original. For more than seventy years, Penguin has ... continue
1090.
Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indriðason EN
Description:
On a January day the Reykjavik police are called to a block of flats where a body has been found: a young boy frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The discovery of a stab wound on his stomach extinguishes any hope that this was an accident. Erlendur & his team embark on their investigation with little to go on.